The Indiana Hoosiers have perhaps the best college basketball player in Cody Zeller, have every key player from last year’s rotation returning and adds top-flight point guard in Yogi Ferrell plus a couple more rookies who should contribute.

So it’s no surprise that Indiana, which won 27 games last season only to lose to eventual national champion Kentucky in the Sweet 16, was voted No. 1 in the coaches’ preseason poll for USA Today/ESPN.

“Assistant coach Tim Buckley made a great point: We started working on defense and defensive concepts and more competitive defense than really we ever have,” Hoosiers coach Tom Crean told Sporting News recently. “Tim said, ‘We’re good enough that we can do that right now. They’re quick learners.’ There’s talent.

“We’re getting deeper; we’re getting more talent. I still get concerned: Are we going to be tough enough to do what we need to do mentally? Physically, we’re getting stronger. But are we going to be physically and mentally strong enough to do what they want to do? Do we have the capabilities yet? We’re in the conversation of it. Going where they really want to go, do we have that toughness? We’ve got to make sure we’re building that.”

Indiana received 21-of-31 first-place votes. Louisville, which made a surprising Final Four run last spring and returns six of its top eight players, got five first-place votes and finished second in the balloting. Kentucky, despite losing six players to the NBA, got five first-place votes and finished third in the balloting. Ohio State and Michigan round out the top five.